Author, Shirley Harris Slaughter is a guest on my blog today. She is one of many authors who made the ’20 Writers Conference & Book Expo a huge success in 2020. Thanks, Shirley, for your contribution! Below are some interesting tidbits about Shirley.
CRAZY! HOT! AND LIVING ON THE EDGE By Shirley Harris-Slaughter
Book Blurb:
Crazy! Hot! And Living On The Edge!! Kindle Edition
Imagine experiencing emotions that have you questioning your sanity. Your body gets overheated at the least bit of excitement and you scramble to find a fan or some air. Or you find yourself in the throes of a panic attack and can’t understand how to shut it off, so you are filled with anxiety wondering when the next one is coming. What if every time you take a drug you experience side-affects that you are warned about on the label? The title was conceived in my mind after I thought over all the situations, I had found myself in, how I got out of them, and the affect all of this had on my overall physical and mental well-being. Crazy! Hot! And Living On The Edge!! Is the True Story of My Upside Down Life!
Author Bio:
Shirley Harris-Slaughter is the author of Our Lady of Victory, the Saga of an African-American Catholic Community which was written to address a need to preserve Catholic history in her local community. She mentored four freshman girls at the local middle school. She is active in her church and https://ravereviewsbookclub.wordpress.com/virtual book club community where she has added another biography and fiction to her repertoire. She is married to Langston and is a Michigan Native.
A BIT MORE ABOUT ME:
During my graduate studies I prepared an Applied Research Project to address the deplorable condition of our train station, in downtown Detroit, MI. It was certified and accepted by the faculty of Cleary University in August 1993. I was able to galvanize the entire community around this issue which was videotaped and featured on broadcast news. I utilized college interns and the city of Detroit to find some answers in order to provide a template for saving this historic station. Here is the Title…
“THE IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH TO RESTORING THE MICHIGAN CENTRAL DEPOT”
Kathie Mae sat and stared at her surroundings; everything was in place just like he liked it.
The cream coloured sofa just at the right angle, three meters away but right in front of the large floor to ceiling window that faced the street before their house. The window sparkled. The brightness from the sun shining heftily through it. The mahogany wood piano, opened, displaying its ivory black and white keys, and a portrait of her hanging over it, singing.
Kathie Mae looked at the portrait and examined the eyes of the woman she no longer knew. Yes, the eyes in the picture were brighter, livelier, and mischievous filled with hope and the desire to conquer the world. Where had all that gone?
The clock ticked away the minutes; her heartbeat quickened with every passing minute.
Soon he would be home. In an hour or two, Kathie Mae would have to stop her wandering mind from going back to the past.
Whoever thought that having everything that money could buy meant fulfilment had to be gravely disturbed she thought and heard Louisa knock softly on the living room door.
“Come in, Louisa.”
“I don’t mean to disturb you, but I’ll be leaving soon. Is there anything else you want me to do?”
“No,” Kathie Mae said and gave her a hollow smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “What are you going to do this weekend, Louisa?”
“I’m going to do what I do here every day,” Louisa said. “I’m going to clean my house.”
Kathie Mae chuckled. She’d talked to Cesare about reducing Louisa’s days to three times a week, but he’d insisted that she had to come every day except Sunday. When he returned home, he wanted to see an orderly, well-kept house without any clutter. That when she’d begun to notice that well-kept meant everything including her.
“Well, take some time to enjoy your Sunday, Louisa. Everybody needs rest.”
“I will. If I had a husband like yours, I’d be in Heaven,” Louisa said. “It would be so nice to wake up and not have to do anything.”
Kathie Mae shuddered at Louisa’s words. The woman didn’t know what she was asking for.
Would she really like living in a cage? The changes Kathie Mae had had to undergo bombarded her mind.
Black men love long hair, white men love afros, but what about what women like. Were there no women in the world outside of the Stepford Wives?
Cesare had told her to get rid of her coils. Why were they so distasteful and unruly for him? Afro, he’d shouted, Afro! An Afro was what Cesare expected her to wear. Little by little, he’d whittled away at her until she’d become the pretty hull that he wanted her to be.
Soon, she didn’t recognise who she was. When she looked into her mirror, she saw Cesare’s creation. The one he wanted to come home too. She’d managed to save only a tiny small piece of who she was hidden deep inside her and would visit whenever she could.
“Are you alright, Ms. Kathie Mae?” Louisa asked, frowning.
She had drifted so deep into the small piece of herself that she’d forgotten that Louisa was standing before her.
“Yes…Louisa. I’m sorry…No need to tell Mr. Domenico…about this. I…was just thinking about what you said,” Kathie Mae said.
“Okay, I won’t mention it this time, but I don’t want you to slip away like that. You scared me. Mr. Domenico said it’s dangerous when you slip away.”
“I’m alright, Louisa. I didn’t slip away. I was just thinking about what you said, ”Kathie Mae repeated even though she didn’t remember what Louisa had said.
“Good, then I would like to leave early if it is alright with you,” Louisa said.
“Sure, why don’t you do that,” Kathie Mae said, “I’m waiting on Cesare to come home just as he wants me too.”
“When are you going to sing again?” Louisa asked.
“Sing? Oh yes…I did sing once, didn’t I.”
“Why don’t you know, Ms. Kathie Mae?” Louisa asked. “You sing so beautifully, with heart and soul.”
“One day…Louisa…one day, I’ll tell you all about it,” Kathie Mae said. “Now go home.”
Kathie Mae heard the front door close and listened as Louisa turned the key in the lock.
She walked to the living room window and stood so Louisa could see that she was in the house. A fake smile on her face, Kathie Mae waved at Louisa. “
“Caged birds don’t sing, Louisa. They dress as puppets without souls,” Kathie Mae murmured while waving to Louisa.
Kathie Mae went back to the sofa to sit before the window, so Cesare could see her when he came and looked at the window from the sidewalk. He would wave. She would wave back. He would walk up the steps and open the door to the cage and say ‘darling ‘before he locked the cage for the weekend.
Welcome to Day 4 of the RWISA “REVOLUTION” Blog Tour! We’d like to introduce you to an amazingly supportive RWISA member, Author, Wendy Jayne Scott, who is also RWISA President. Take a peek at her writing below…
HAPPY DANCE
In March 2020, with only a few days warning, alongside the rest of New Zealand, I was plunged into total lockdown. Saying this was a surreal experience is an understatement. As none of us knew how long this altered state would last, what this meant for our jobs, or the financial or health repercussions. We’d become entangled into the twilight zone of Covid-19. UNPRECEDENTED, screamed from the headlines alongside worldwide body counts and estimated infection rates. No compass existed to guide us out of the pandemic fog shrouding our futures. We were confined to our specified people bubbles.
Teddy Bears sprouted up window ledges and letter boxes, a sign of hope and solidarity, signalling to passers-by that even though 2 meter distances and masks now ruled our physical world, we were together in our hearts. I remember gathering, with my son, at the end of our driveway, in the predawn, to pay homage to our fallen ANZAC soldiers. Dawn parades were cancelled for the first time in 104 years. The haunting bugle tone of ‘The Last Post’ filtered from an unseen neighbour’s gateway and shivers resonated along my spine.https://www.youtube.com/embed/f7V07V1rjbM?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent
During lockdown, I had a choice of how I would respond to my altered reality. Black voids of despair, conspiracy theories, and fake news plied for my sanity. Yet, sunlight glistened on the tall summer grasses in my yard, my son’s laughter trickled on the breeze, and my dogs’ tails wagged like helicopter rotors, ecstatic to have their human pals home 24/7. So, I chose to focus on becoming a healthier and happier version of me, and a positive role-model for my son.
Fast forward to February 2021, New Zealand is no longer in lockdown, but our borders are heavily restricted, and the new media buzz words are QUARANTINE and VACCINE. Uncertainty looms like a bloated storm cloud. Fears of further job losses and financial ruin taint our summer days. Staying positive is harder to maintain under this sustained assault of negative news.
Changes are happening. Although, I fight against the dismantling of my comfortable world, my will alone doesn’t curb the tidal jetsam from Covid-19, so I must adapt to this foreign landscape.
Since lockdown, I’ve embraced personal development, focusing inward, aware that I may not be in a position to influence external circumstances, but I can take responsibility for myself. Being positive is easy when life is rosy, yet it is how I react when life is battering away at my defences that define me as a person.
Here are my top tips for positivity:
Express your gratitude every day for what you do have
Show and tell your loved ones how much you care for them and hug them (if you can)
Use your creativity!!!! Keep feeding your creative addictions
Resonate with nature by strolling on the beach, sniff garden flowers, or listen to birdsong
Smile more, at everyone, this is the right kind of contagious! If a mask hides your mouth, then smile through your eyes!
Be kind, laugh, and dance – play music that lifts your spirit
Did you enjoy Wendy’s writing? Then please, help us support her and her work along this REVOLUTION tour! We ask that you click on the author’s RWISA Profile below and visit all of her profile pages – some offering more insight into the member and others showcasing the author’s talent.
Lastly, we ask that you support this member as well as the host of this blog, by sharing this page and the author’s profile pages across all your social media platforms.
Now, we’d like to give you a chance at some of this awesome promotion for yourself!
Have you written that book or short story you want the whole world to know about? Are you looking for a great way to promote your creative endeavors? Perhaps you’re seeking to add some prestige to your body of work! If this sounds like you, we invite you to come on over to RAVE WRITERS – INT’L SOCIETY OF AUTHORS, otherwise known as RWISA.
At RWISA, we invite and accept into membership only the very best writers the Indie community has to offer.
If your work is exemplary and speaks for itself, stop by the RWISA website today at RaveWriters.wordpress.com and find out how you can submit your sample of writing for consideration.
We’re an exclusive bunch but we’d love to have you join us!
NOTE: If you’re looking to improve your writing while taking another route to membership into RWISA, while you’re at the site, visit RWISA UNIVERSITY!
Thanks for dropping by and don’t forget to leave the author a comment below! To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the tour’s home page!
I first met JQ in the Insecure Writers Support Group created by Alex J Cavanaugh. What struck me was her ability to make her characters come off the page and talk with you. She writes Fiction and Non-Fiction.
JQ is a wordsmith, and I am delighted to have her on my author blog. We, writers, know how lonely a writer’s job can be. So, I have asked JQ to talk about the characteristics or traits of writers who succeed.
Thank you so much for hosting me today, Pat. I love your suggestion of sharing what I believe are the characteristics needed to be a writer. I am not saying I have every one of these qualities because I am a work-in-progress myself. But exploring and naming the features certainly made me think.
Readers, you are invited to add to the list of characteristics.
Two lucky commenters will be drawn to win a PDF copy of Arranging a Dream for one and the other will win an e-copy of Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing loaded with helpful tips on writing, publishing and marketing.
The Characteristics of a Writer
I listed the characteristics in no order of importance.
Devotion A writer must love what she is doing. If not, the book or essay will never get written because we all know the first draft is junk. If a writer is not devoted, she will tear up the pages and give up. Rejections will knock her off her feet, and she will never try again. But when devoted to creating her piece, her belief and determination will be challenged, but she will keep writing.
Organization As a writer, we wear many hats. Indie authors must keep track of writing, editing, formatting, publishing, marketing, and business decisions. Traditional or indie authors must organize their research for a story, save the manuscript files to choose the correct one for editing, keep track of promotions, posts for a blog, email and social media.
Imagination Remember when you were a kid, and you would act out stories with your friends or make up poems for your mom? Fiction writers never lose that creativity. Non-fiction writers need imagination too to send the clear message of the book or essay to readers in an interesting and new way.
Intelligence Although no one wants to admit it, I am telling you only smart people can write! I know it sounds like bragging, but it is the truth.
Discipline If a writer cannot set aside a time when penning a project and keep that appointment, the writing will never be finished. Making time in your schedule for creating a project and sitting down to do it will develop the habit of writing.
Wordsmith Writers need to know a variety of words to clearly describe places, characters, and emotions. Reading enlarges your vocabulary. Become a wordsmith using Thesaurus.com. The Emotion Thesaurus series by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman are valuable aids for writers. Sense of Humor Mark Twain and Janet Evanovich are masters when it comes to including humor in their stories. Even a horror story or murder mystery can use a light touch within the pages.
Thank you, JQ for taking the time to share your thoughts on the characteristics of good writers. JQ Rose’s Memoir is out.
Blurb:
In 1975, budding entrepreneurs Ted and Janet purchase a floral shop and greenhouses where they plan to grow their dream. Leaving friends and family behind in Illinois and losing the security of two paychecks, they transplant themselves, their one-year-old daughter, and all their belongings to Fremont, Michigan, where they know no one.
Will the retiring business owners nurture Ted and Janet as they struggle to develop a blooming business, or will they desert the inexperienced young couple to wither and die in their new environment?
Most of all, can Ted and Janet grow together as they cultivate a loving marriage, juggle parenting with work, and root a thriving business?
Follow this couple’s inspiring story, filled with the joy and triumphs and the obstacles and failures experienced as they travel along the turbulent path of turning dreams into reality.
I have purchased my copy already and look forward to reading it. If you would like to know more about JQ or contact her, here is a short bio and her contact links.
Bio: Whether the story is fiction or non-fiction, J.Q. Rose is “focused on story.” She offers readers chills, giggles and quirky characters woven within the pages of her romantic suspense novels. Her published mysteries are Deadly Undertaking, Terror on Sunshine Boulevard and Dangerous Sanctuary released by Books We Love Publishing. Using her storytelling skills, she provides entertainment and information with articles featured in books, magazines, newspapers, and online magazines.
Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games and travel are the things that keep JQ out of trouble. She and her husband spend winters in Florida and summers up north with their two daughters, two sons-in-law, four grandsons, one granddaughter, two grand dogs, four grand cats, and one great-grand bearded dragon.
Please leave a comment below to enter the drawing for Arranging a Dream: A Memoir or Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing. Deadline to enter is 9:00 pm ET, February 11.
The RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB’S Fifth Annual Writers’ Conference and Book Expo starts today and runs through August 16th. There are a lot of good things happening at this Online Expo. Besides the authors having their own bookstands featuring their books, there is a scavenger hunt, Amazon Gift Certificates, fantastic classes being offered at a price that we writers can afford, and Bingo with prizes.
This Writers’ Conference and Book Expo provides educational information that lets you know what is happening in the publishing field. I personally attended a conference four years ago and was wowed at how professional the Writers’ Conference and Book Expo was conducted.
For those interested in attending, I have put the title in a hyperlink below, which will connect you directly to the venue when it goes live.
Having entered into this world early on a Tuesday morning, I am an early getter-upper. Getting up pass seven in the morning gives me the feeling of having missed some part of the day. So, I am usually up and about by five in the morning.
As a writer and singer this sometimes bring me into conflict with myself. If I am in my world, my writing flows and time does not exist. I’ve stepped outside of time zone and before I know it, the next day has appeared.
According to some people in the medical field, eight hours of sleep a day is mandatory for the human being. If so, then I differ from the norm. I have appointments to be at, practices for concerts, or have tasks and responsibilities that only I can settle.
Thus, the website project the image of me as a writer and may sometime connect with my musical world. So many times, we think that artists do not encounter the daily challenges, frustrations, problems, and disappointments that everyone else encounters. But that is not true. Artists who strive for excellence grapple with challenges, changes, disappointments, frustrations, hurts and loss. We go through deep valleys.
Our success does not lie in the fact that these things are alien to our lives, but to the fact that we are learning how to master them, by facing daily the events that confront us, even if we are afraid of the outcome.
